Factcheck: Grayson's TV ad "Lowers the Bar"
Politico reports:
Rep. Alan Grayson's attempt to equate his Republican challenger with the Taliban is having a big impact — just not the one Grayson may have hoped.
In an ad, Grayson's campaign calls Republican Daniel Webster a "religious fanatic" — a charge it supports with video in which Webster seems to encourage wives to "submit" to their husbands.
But FactCheck.org says the narrative crafted by the Florida Democrat's campaign distorts what Webster was actually saying.
"Grayson has lowered the bar even further. He's using edited video to make his rival appear to be saying the opposite of what he really said," the nonpartisan site, sponsored by the Annenberg Public Policy Center, wrote on its blog Monday.
"Grayson manipulates a video clip to make it appear Webster was commanding wives to submit to their husbands, quoting a passage in the Bible. Four times, the ad shows Webster saying wives should submit to their husbands," the site points out. "In fact, Webster was cautioning husbands to avoid taking that passage as their own. The unedited quote is: 'Don't pick the ones [Bible verses] that say, 'She should submit to me.'"
Grayson was also reprimanded by the Orlando Sentinel, which posted a story Monday headlined "Grayson's 'Taliban Dan' Ad Takes Webster's Words Out of Context, Twists Meaning."
